New on DVD

Guelph Mercury

Howdy Kids: Saturday Afternoon Western Roundup, Grade B-plus: If you grew up in the 1950s, then this is a three-DVD set you have to own. It’s a fun trip back to Saturdays when heroes — who rode horses, flew planes and even got around in a jeep — ruled the television airwaves.

There are 25 episodes of live-action programming originally designed to entertain children.

Included are episodes of The Lone Ranger, The Range Rider, The Rifleman, The Adventures Of Rick O’Shay, Fury, The Roy Rogers Show, Annie Oakley, The Adventures Of Kit Carson, The Adventures Of Champion, The Cisco Kid, Sergeant Preston Of the Yukon, Sky King, Red Ryder and Buffalo Bill Jr.

Everyone will have their favorites, but two of the standouts are Sky King — who battled bad guys using an airplane — and Sergeant Preston Of the Yukon— whose companion was King, a dog billed as a husky by was really an Alaskan Malamute.

Even if you didn’t grow up in the ’50s, these live-action shows are still fun to watch.

Boss: Season 2, Grade B: The second season of this political and human drama featuring Kelsey Grammer as Chicago Mayor Tom Kane steps up the intensity of the first season.

Grammer’s first year was good enough to earn him a Golden Globe. The second season comes with an even stronger performance from Grammer, who portrays a politician battling to hold his career together despite having a debilitating brain disease.

It helped that new actors added to this pot boiler, including Sanaa Lathan, Jonathan Groff and Tip (T.I.) Harris, playing characters who replenish Kane’s inner circle that was devastated in the first season.